Ivory towers
by jwg676
Summary: Tsunade's life is comparable to a fairytale


Title: I let you live

**Title: **Ivory towers

**Rating: **G

**Pairing / characters: **Tsunade

**Word count: **727 words

**Warnings: **Generally spoilerish, I would imagine

**Summary: **Tsunade's life rivals that of a fairytale

**A/N: **My first Tsunade fic! I don't think it turned out too badly in the end…

The warmth and unusual beauty of the day prompted the memory of the story. Nawaki had been four years old then, still a child who dreamed of heroes and legends, the thoughts of following in his grandfather's footsteps still years away. The fairytale had been one of her favourites, and Tsunade had read it over and over. When she graduated from the Academy, she had – almost regretfully – laid the book aside.

She never, ever forgot the tale.

"_once a long time ago in a kingdom by the sea, a beautiful princess had lived. Her father and grandfather loved her so very much that they did everything in their power to keep her safe and happy. Her Mama would read her stories, and play with her dolls, and her father would let her ride on his majestic white horse. High up from the ground, the little princess felt safe and protected. Then, one cold and rainy night, her Mama was in an accident. They brought her back to the palace, but the court physician had warned them all that the Queen was badly hurt and was not going to see the morning. True enough, her Mama passed away, and even through her grief, the princess had told her father that her Mama looked like she was sleeping. For many months, her father and grandfather were inconsolable, and nothing the princess did made them happy – until a woman who looked nothing like her mother came to the palace – and stayed. The princess did not like her, for the woman's features were cruel and her personality more so, but it was the first time she had seen her father smile, so she tried very hard to like the woman for his sake. Three days later, her father had told her the woman was to be her new mama. The princess wondered if the woman could perform magic to make her father so happy, but she dared not ask. Try as she might, the princess could never please her stepmother, and so, one warm summer's night, the wicked woman sold her to a witch._

_The witch was a terrible old woman, and she kept the little princess locked in an ivory tower to while away her life. Years passed, and the princess grew into a beautiful young woman. Her hair was long, longer than she'd ever dreamed it would be, but the princess was deeply unhappy. She was lonely, and longed to see her friends and family, and prayed that one day, one day, she would be rescued. She would dream of her hero, never once imagining that he was on his way to her, having heard the legends of her beauty and sadness, locked away from the rest of the world. He came, and broke down the walls that surrounded her, destroying the witch whose evil had kept her imprisoned, and swept her onto his beautiful horse, vowing to love her forever and ever._

Tsunade glanced around her office. While it was no ivory tower, she was high enough above Konoha that she could see for miles around her. Her mother had not been injured in an accident, but had died protecting her village, another in a long line of shinobi whom had given their lives for their loved ones. Tsunade rode a slug, not a horse, using Katsuyu's power to protect her village, and she was no child of queens, but remembered fondly as Tsunade-hime. Orochimaru was long gone, alive only in her memories of their times together as shinobi, and it was no witch, but death, that had imprisoned her heart. Jiraiya had tried to come for her, but in the end, it had been a stubborn little brat to set her free.

Tsunade always loved Jiraiya, Gama-sennin, he who tamed frogs and rode them instead of horses, but even Jiraiya had failed to bring Orochimaru back.

Tsunade could see the parallels in her life to the fairytale she'd loved as a child, but no longer was she unhappy. She had a village, people who adored and cared for her, and people she loved in return – a boy, maturing into the shinobi his father had been, a young girl with the strength of mind to rival her own.

Tsunade could not say she was discontent, for it seemed that it was not only fairytales that had happy endings.


End file.
